


to return home

by watermelonsenpai



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: 2 a.m, Airports, Birthday, Don't Judge Me, Established Relationship, Fluff, I Don't Even Know, Language of Flowers, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Please Don't Hate Me, Please Don't Kill Me, Rings, Train Rides, Why Did I Write This?, Wow, so unlike me to write this, thank me friend, wrote this in the dead of 2 a.m
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-07
Updated: 2017-09-07
Packaged: 2018-12-24 22:09:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12022044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/watermelonsenpai/pseuds/watermelonsenpai
Summary: There is approximately two hours and thirty minutes from where he is to Narita Airport. There is approximately two hours and thirty minutes from wherever he is to wherever he may be. There is approximately two hours and thirty minutes from the fluttering heart of Sugawara Koushi to the heart of Oikawa Tooru.They will return home.





	to return home

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DeeNotMe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeeNotMe/gifts).



> okay so this was a birthday fic for great friend DeeNotMe and I really hope she enjoyed this because I was really stressing for a few hours about how to wrap this up so yeah!! I hope you enjoy this fic as much as I enjoy talking to you about fandoms and everything!! :D

Sugawara Koushi thinks it's been six months without warmth of a person sleeping beside him. Six months of one less plate to wash at the sink. Six months of the game console untouched because no one's there to play with him. Six months without Oikawa Tooru.   
  
In reality, it's been just over three, but love likes to mess with body clocks.    
  
Today's June 11th, just two days away from his birthday, but that's not what makes him pop out of bed like a weasel or brush his teeth so hard and fast people would think he's trying to murder them. That's not the point.   
  
The point is that the love of his life is coming back to Japan from the US. The point is that his knee injury may be curable. The point is that Oikawa Tooru is coming back to Japan.   
  
And if that doesn't make him smile wider, nothing else does.   
  
————————   
  
Narita Airport is one long, long journey away. It lasts two hours and thirty minutes because a) he didn't eat breakfast at the crack of dawn at which he woke up at and b) he had to pick up flowers.    
  
Sugawara is lucky that he lives closer to the Hongo-sanchome station than Tokyo University (yes, Tokyo University! when everyone heard it they were delighted and so was he) because it saves his legs the drenching, sticky summer heat a little and the added weight of an umbrella on his hands. The rain falls at a light drizzle and Sugawara's feet (boots) hit the pavement with splashes as he steps into puddles on his way to the train station. Sugawara likes trains, he finds; the gentle rock of the wheels on clacking tracks, the whistle of wind outside the window, the air conditioning always a little too low. The peace. Early Sunday mornings are a time when the cabins stay empty, just how he likes it.    
  
Yet, his head is just filled with the buzz of anticipation. It's a noisy but warm buzz, like drinking alcohol on cold days, and it warms his cheeks, ears, tips of his fingers. The word  _ 帰る _ rings, loud and clear.  _ To return home. _   
  
He decides he likes the word home.   
  
————————   
  
He buys flowers after getting off at Kuramae station.    
  
The flowers aren't showy or anything, just a few stalks of yellow rose that he's read somewhere symbolise 'welcome home'. The florist at the counter wears the formal, customer-greeting smile and she's got a pink streak in her tied-up brown hair. A piercing (some silvery metal) glints on her tongue when she speaks. Sugawara can't help but think a series of thoughts, including: 'jaw should be squarer' 'remove that pink streak' 'a little more drama to your voice' and 'smile like you love aliens'. Sugawara's brain is running off without him today and he has to stare at the florist awkwardly for half a minute before realising he gave too little money to pay for the flowers. Today, he is a mess.   
  
Today, he will carry the flowers like he is carrying a speck of dust that may float away at any time. Today, he will carry his feelings that melt red on the pocket of his jacket (faded and blue; if he concentrates hard enough he can still smell the soap Oikawa used in its seams) like he is carrying nothing, that he can throw them away. Today, he will meet Oikawa Tooru.   
  
Somewhere in his heart, a seed of doubt sprouts. It's uncomfortable.   
  
————————   
  
He reaches Narita Airport soon enough. He's never seen the inside of airports all that often; the stuffy, grey murmur of people crossing and moving doesn't help to still the stutters in his chest. The atmosphere seems too crowded, like someone tried to stuff one more item in a bag too full, and Sugawara feels his throat constrict just a little. He feels just a little claustrophobic; it has always affected his childhood, but today it feels worse. Jitters, he suspects. He retires to a cafe somewhere in the complex.   
  
Cafés are meant to be nice and quiet with just the floating background music coming from somewhere but this is different. This one feels like business, forgotten passports, delayed flights, babies crying. Feels like static pricking in all the wrong places. Feels like goodbyes at airports that he's all too familiar with. Sugawara Koushi is bad at saying goodbye.   
  
So he hopes he won't have to do it again.   
  
(It also feels like bad carrot cake but Sugawara's too nice to say anything about that.)   
  
————————   
  
The gate is open, says the TV screen just above his head. The gate is open.    
  
He has not ever felt so desperate to run, feel the fire in his legs and press his hands to the glass separating the baggage pick-up and the arrival hall. He has never felt so desperate to feel something oh-so-familiar to him and something he could love with all his life in the spaces between his setter fingers. He has never felt so desperate.    
  
He feels so desperate now.   
  
His eyes (hazel but also a bit bloodshot from the nap on the train) scour the crowd for a curl of cocoa brown hair that fluffs up at the corners, an alien design on a black, galaxy-painted luggage, the edge of a hand-knitted grey sweater. There's nothing, no one on sight that fits the criteria and Sugawara feels his heart sink to his feet and 6 feet more beneath that. The prospect of Oikawa not finding Sugawara is very high; three months is a long time without physical contact and he wonders how Oikawa coped. He also wonders if he's forgotten.   
  
But there. He sees.   
  
Sees the unmistakable height of a volleyball player, sees the brown hair now curling down a little more and covering his ears, sees the stupid luggage Sugawara helped to paint. He sees the grip of fingers honed by setting on the luggage and he's biting the index finger knuckle on his right hand. He sees Oikawa Tooru.   
  
And in that same instant, Oikawa sees Sugawara Koushi.   
  
Sees that his silver hair is long enough that he now ties it in a small ponytail, sees the gentle, spindly fingers grip three yellow roses so tightly his knuckles turn white, sees his old blue jacket now on his shoulders. He sees the delicate way Sugawara shows the emotions on his face; first just a mild shocked look, slowly easing into bittersweet longing.   
  
He has never known anyone so beautiful as Sugawara Koushi.   
  
Perhaps that's why they meet again with Sugawara giving him flowers and Oikawa sweeping him into the tightest, most intimate hug. Oikawa doesn't imagine the tears that he can see form on Sugawara's tear ducts, the trembling hands that smooth over the back of his coat. Sugawara doesn't imagine the way Oikawa's mouth quirks up when he's given the flowers, the extra grip on his hand as they make their way to their apartment.   
  
Sugawara thinks that these trembling hands of his hold Oikawa's hand tighter than anything, as if it's confirmation that they are both alive, both breathing, both still falling in love with the other.   
  
————————   
  
"Suga-chan."   
  
"....hm?"   
  
"Close your eyes."    
  
They're almost at the doorstep. Sugawara doesn't play games like these but if it's Oikawa he's more than happy to oblige (because it's the energy that's just something he cannot get enough of). He feels something cold slide onto his finger. Cold like metal.   
  
"Open your eyes."   
  
Oikawa grins stupidly because he's not exactly good at hiding things like this. Sugawara looks down to find what appears to be a single silver band and upon closer inspection bears the tiny, laser-cut kanji for Oikawa:  _ 及川 _ . It's simple, but Sugawara's brain kind of short-circuits because this is all too much and nothing at once.   
  
"I mean, it's your birthday on Tuesday, right? I got us matching rings—" and to that Oikawa holds up his right hand to show the glisten of silver with Sugawara laser-cut into the metal "— but really it's not a proposal ring, I mean, I'd definitely propose to you once you're done with university but the ring would be much better and—"  _ how cute he's rambling _   
  
"Oikawa Tooru, thank you for the present. Really." Sugawara doesn't know how soft his voice can get but today he wants to shout at the top of his lungs and also speak with the whispers of the wind.   
  
"I'm home, Suga-chan." Oikawa is soft, gentle; three months is a long time for a piece of delicate velvet like Sugawara.   
  
"I'm glad you're home." Sugawara is soft, quiet; three months is a long time to build feelings on the hollowness of absence.   
  
There is never so much relief than when their lips meet, when fingers run through hair of warmest hazelnut and ethereal silver, because they're home (somewhere; so long as they've got each other on their arms).   
  
They will make up for three month's time. They will.   
  
— fin. —

**Author's Note:**

> this is also on DeviantArt under the name CatofLife but honestly there's nothing there that's too interesting (there is something there that isn't here though so you might want to check that out)!! once again: HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEE!! (and as you can tell i chose oisuga because of the collab we did a while ago)


End file.
